The majority of children placed for adoption today have come from abusive and traumatic backgrounds, which has shaped their behaviour and their view of the world. Many adoptive families experience severe difficulties at times, sometimes resulting in crisis and only then are they able to access therapy for children and other areas of support.

At Family Futures we realise that we cannot just talk to children about their past, which is a frontal lobe activity; nor can we simply help children form more secure attachments without dealing, in some way, with the residue of trauma which had been somatically ingrained into the child’s nervous system. Our treatment approach is based on the principle that complex problems require complex solutions. The children who are referred to Family Futures generally require a multi-disciplinary approach that takes into account their particular history as well as their degree of traumatisation. The approach works on the principle that an assessment needs to ascertain the level of the brain at which the child is currently functioning, so that the intervention can address this area of the brain. In other words, for the extremely dys-regulated child, body-based work aimed at regulation is the first focus of treatment. This takes into account the child’s fight, flight and freeze response to stress and works at calming their nervous system to enable them to engage in more reflective therapeutic interventions.

Alongside this basic premise of therapy for children, it is also recognised that parent support, education support and further specialist assessments are often required to take into account the impact of Developmental Trauma on all of the child’s development as well as the family system and the professional system supporting the child. it is for this reason that Family Futures offers a multi-disciplinary assessment and treatment service. This assessment and treatment service is evidence based and has been informed by the work of Dan Hughes, Bruce Perry, Bessel Van der Kolk, Theraplay, Dr A. Jean Ayres, Peter Levine, Pat Ogden, Bryan Post and amongst other clinicians

To find out more about our approach download ‘Family Futures’ Neuro-sequential Approach to the Assessment and Treatment of Traumatised Children’ by Alan Burnell and Jay Vaughan.

Visit our Adoption Support page to find out how our unique approach can help you.

Contact us to find out more about our assessment and treatment services.

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